It took 25 minutes and 55 seconds for the Surface Laptop Go to transcode a 4K resolution video to 1080p resolution with Handbrake. That’s faster than the Surface Go 2 (181.8 MBps) but far slower than both the Swift (462.7 MBps) and MacBook Air (508.9 MBps). Microsoft’s petite laptop transferred 5GB of files at a rate of 278.4 MBps. The Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 did better (4,862), but the MacBook Air fared worse (2,738). The fact that it beat the Surface Go 2 (1,563), with its older processor meant for fanless designs wasn’t surprising. On Geekbench 5.0, the Surface Laptop Go notched a multi-core score of 3,117. Our review unit paired that with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.įor our productivity tests, we’re comparing it to Microsoft’s other latest Go product, the Surface Laptop Go 2, released earlier this year with an older Intel Core m3-8100Y, the Acer Swift 3 with AMD’s Ryzen 7 4700U, and the Apple MacBook Air, with another 10th Gen Intel processor, the Core i5-1030NG7.

The Surface Laptop Go is powered by an Intel Core i5-1035G1, no matter which configuration you choose. Windows 10 Home in S Mode (Tested with Windows 10 Home)ġ1 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches /278.2 mm x 206.2 mm x 15.7 mm USB Type-C, USB Type-A, 3.5 mm headphone jack, Surface Connect port

12.4 inch laptop